Iowa takes slight lead over Ohio State and Penn State in first session at NCAA Championships in Cleveland

Alex Marinelli of Iowa has his hand raised after a pin at 165 pounds in the opening round of the NCAA Championships. Photo by Tony Rotundo.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Although much of the focus of the NCAA Wrestling Championships is on the team race, which is expected to be hotly contested between returning national champion Penn State and Big Ten champion Ohio State, the first session often is highlighted by which teams and athletes get off to a fast start.
It was Iowa which had the best fast start, taking the lead after the first session, with 18.5 points, ahead of Ohio State with 17 points and Penn State with 16 points. Iowa head coach Tom Brands didn’t even know they were winning when the session ended and he met with reporters.
“I didn’t know that. It is a sign we are doing good things. We have to continue that. Start with Spencer Lee (125) and go right up to Sam Stoll (285). There is a lot of wrestling left. We are getting ready for the next matches. That’s the most important thing. It is going to be a lot of fun,” said Brands.
Eight of the nine Iowa wrestlers won their bouts, including two wins from pigtail wrestler Vincent Turk at 141. There were seven bonus-point wins in the group, and the Hawkeyes won their first six matches.
There were pins from Michael Kemerer over Coleman Hammond of Bakersfield at 157, Alex Marinelli over Jacob Morrisey of Purdue at 165 and Sam Stoll over Antonio Pelusi of Franklin & Marshall at heavyweight. Also add in a technical fall by freshman star Spencer Lee at 125. Turk tossed in a major decision in his pigtail match to boot, as did Mitch Bowman at 184.
Ohio State went a perfect 10-for-10 on the morning and had some nice bonus point wins, but had five very close decision wins that gave the hometown fans a lot to worry about.
Luke Pletcher earned a 2-1 win over Mason Pengilly of Stanford at 133 pounds. Ke-Shawn Hayes needed a last-second reversal in the overtime tie-breaker to edge Malik Amine of Michigan, 6-5, at 149. Te’Shan Campbell was a 4-2 winner over Dawaylon Barnes of Oklahoma at 165. Kollin Moore was pushed in a close match at 197 by Tanner Orndorff of Utah Valley, before coming out with a 12-8 win. Orndorff was added into the tournament as the 34th wrestler when Kevin Beazley of Michigan was forced to end his season early due to injury. 
“They are tight. It looks like the nerves got to us in the first round. This is a big tournament. Everyone’s record here is 0-0. You have got to be ready to score points. The goal is to go 10-0. We got some bonus points, and we have to do that moving forward,” said Buckeye coach Tom Ryan.
Ohio State had a nice early run, with 2015 NCAA champion Nathan Tomasello pinning Gabe Townsell of Stanford at 125 and transfer Joey McKenna, in his first NCAA Championships as a Buckeye, getting a 16-1 technical fall over Alex Mandigral of ODU.
The next bonus-point win for the Buckeyes came at 157, as Micah Jordan got a 14-5 major decision over Army’s Luke Weiland. Myles Martin added a technical fall at 184, and Olympic champion Kyle Snyder added a major decision to open his final folkstyle tournament at heavyweight.
“It’s big for bonus points early on. It’s a battle with Penn State and a few other teams. I have that in the back of my mind as well,” said Tomasello.
Ohio State had strong support, especially for the team members who grew up in Ohio and stayed in-state to help build the powerful Buckeye program. Tomasello, a senior, is one of those hometown favorites from nearby Parma.
“It’s good to be a hometown boy. I love it right now. I’m just enjoying my last tournament as an Ohio State Buckeye. (I’m) just going after it, wrestling as hard as I can for seven minutes. That’s the biggest thing. If I just give everything I have, I have no regrets,” said Tomasello.
Penn State took two big hits early, starting when No. 8 Nick Lee was pinned by Ryan Diehl of Maryland at 141 pounds. Diehl hit a cowcatcher as Lee was winning 5-3 and nailed the move. Shortly after, No. 11 Dom Forys of Pitt scored a pin over Corey Keener in 4:57.
Penn State didn’t score a team point until two-time NCAA champion Zain Retherford got the bonus-point train rolling at 149 pounds, getting a 16-1 technical fall over Kyle Springer of Eastern Michigan. The Nittany Lions quickly made up any lost ground, by scoring seven-straight bonus-point wins to close out the session.
Included was a pin by Nick Nevills at heavyweight and technical falls by returning national champions Zain Retherford at 149 and Jason Nolf at 157. Also in the run included four-straight major decisions, with 2017 national champions Vincenzo Joseph at 165, Mark Hall at 174 and Bo Nickal at 184, plus 197-pounder Shakur Rasheed.
Rounding out the early team standings were Michigan in fourth with 13 points, NC State in fifth with 12 points and Oklahoma State in sixth with nine team points.
The first session is always interesting with unseeded wrestlers knocking off seeded athletes, often in unexpected ways. There were 23 seeded wrestlers defeated Thursday morning, including four with a top-eight seed.
The biggest upset of the session came at 157, where unseeded Kennedy Monday of North Carolina knocked off 2017 NCAA runner-up and No. 2 seed Joey Lavallee of Missouri, 8-6. Monday, a freshman, is the son of 1988 Olympic champion Kenny Monday, who is a club coach in Chapel Hill with the Tarheel WC.
The Tarheels had the most upsets of seeds with three. In addition to Monday’s big win, Chip Ness beat No. 10 Emery Parker of Illinois, 4-3, at 184 and Daniel Chaid stopped No. 12 Stephen Loiseau of Drexel, 12-4, at 197.
Missouri, coming off an undefeated dual meet season and high expecations coming into Cleveland, also lost No. 5 John Erneste at 133 pounds, who lost to Tariq Wilson of NC State, 8-3 at 133 pounds. Another seeded loss came at 184 pounds, when No. 15 Canten Marriott fell to Mitchell Bowman of Iowa in a 10-2 major decision. The Tigers were mired in tie for 14th place with six points, and just four athletes left in the championship side of the bracket.
Two teams had full 10 athlete teams, Ohio State and EIWA champion Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks placed seven of their athletes into the second round, including returning national champion Darian Cruz at 125, who was pushed hard by Michigan State’s Rayvon Foley in a 7-4 first-round win.
All 12 past national champions in the field advanced, including two-time champion and three-time finalist Isaiah Martinez of Illinois, who had a 20-5 technical fall win in his opener at 165 pounds against Zachary Carson of Eastern Michigan. Another two-time champion Dean Heil of Oklahoma State, who is only seeded No. 6 in his senior season, opened with a 4-2 win over Evan Cheek of Cleveland State.
The second session of the NCAA Championships are set for 7 p.m. Eastern time, and is being covered by the ESPN network.
NCAA DIV. I CHAMPIONSHIPS

At Cleveland, Ohio


Top 15 teams after session one
1. Iowa 18.5
2. Ohio State 17.0
3. Penn State 16.0
4. Michigan 13.0
5. NC State 12.0
6. Oklahoma State 9.0
7. Rutgers 8.5
8. Arizona State 8.0
8. Cornell 8.0
8. Lehigh 8.0
8. Minnesota 8.0
12. North Carolina 7.0
12. Wisconsin 7.0
14. Lock Haven 6.0
14. Maryland 6.0
14. Missouri 6.0
14. Pittsburgh 6.0
14. Virginia Tech 6.0
Defeats of seeded wrestlers in session one
No. 2 Joey Lavallee (Missouri) lost to Kennedy Monday (North Carolina), 8-6 at 157
No. 5 John Erneste (Missouri) lost to Tariq Wilson (NC State), 8-3 at 133
No. 8 Nick Lee (Penn State) pinned by Ryan Diehl (Maryland), 2:13 at 141
No. 8 Chandler Rogers (Oklahoma State) lost to Jonathan Viruet (Brown), 6-5 at 165
No. 9 Josh Alber (UNI) lost to Sa'Derian Perry (Eastern Michigan), 11-5 at 141
No. 9 Preston Weigel (Oklahoma State) lost to Kyle Conel (Kent State), 5-0 at 197
No. 10 Emery Parker (Illinois) lost to Chip Ness (North Carolina), 4-3 at 184
No. 10 Scottie Boykin (Chattanooga) lost to Chris Weiler (Lehigh), 4-1 at 197
No. 11 Clayton Ream (ND State) lost to Paul Fox (Stanford), 4-2 at 157
No. 11 Corey Griego (Oregon State) lost to Nathan Traxler (Stanford), 9-3 at 197
No. 12 Josh Terao (American) lost to Rico Montoya (Northern Colorado), 10-5 at 133
No. 12 Bryce Carr (Chattanooga) lost to Corey Hazel (Lock Haven), 6-3, tb-1 at 184
No. 12 Stephen Loiseau (Drexel) lost to Daniel Chaid (North Carolina), 12-4 at 197
No. 13 Colton McCrystal (Nebraska) lost to Jarred Degan (Iowa State), 9-5 at 149
No. 13 William Miller (Edinboro) lost to Shawn Streck (Purdue), 11-5 at 285
No. 15 Ali Nasser (Arizona State) lost to Anthony Tutolo (Kent State), 5-2 at 133
No. 15 Canten Marriott (Missouri) lost to Mitchell Bowman (Iowa), 10-2 at 184
No. 15 Nate Limmex (Purdue) lost to Eli Stickley (Wisconsin), 3-2 at 141
No. 16 Jacob Schwarm (UNI) pinned by Drew Mattin (Michigan), 3:50 at 125
No. 16 Cole Weaver (Indiana) lost to Vincent Turk (Iowa), 4-3 at 141
No. 16 Mike D’Angelo (Princeton) lost to Taleb Rahmani (Pitt), 13-5 at 157
No. 16 Christian Brunner (Purdue) lost to Patrick Brucki (Princeton), 8-6 at 197
No 16 Matt Stencel (Central Michigan) lost to Jere Heino (Campbell), 8-3 at 285